In 1948 and 1949, near the beginning of the British/French/American/Soviet occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviets decided to block Western access to the city of Berlin (in spite of the British, French, and Americans ostensibly having access to West Berlin). It originally took place because the Soviets had effectively debased the Reichsmark through excessive printing in order to weaken Germany, and the Western allies decided that it was more important to have a strong West German currency. Stalin was upset by this, especially when the Deutsche Mark was going to flood into Berlin. When the new currency was introduced, Stalin responded by blocking access, in the hope that the Allies would either abandon Berlin or withdraw the currency.

As the only access to Berlin that was codified in writing was by air, it was determined that airlifting supplies to Berlin was the only option. It took a couple of months for the Allies to get the hang of it, but by August 1948 it was largely successful. Not wanting to enter a war with the United States, the Soviets did not disrupt the airlift, and it continued into 1949.

Gail Halvorsen earned his own nickname because he pioneered the idea of dropping candy bars and bubble gum to Berlin’s children (with handmade miniature parachutes).

Tournament of Champions projections:
With a projected 156 regular-play games to go prior to the Tournament of Champions cutoff, after 500,000 simulations, our model shows:
An average of 4.6487 5+-time champions (standard deviation 1.7886).
An average of 8.4105 4+-time champions (standard deviation 2.1859).

An early cutoff took place 30.621% of the time (or a 5-game winner will be left out).

While it’s a moot point because of how the responses turned out, Chrissy essentially turned Jonathan’s game into a runaway by not betting enough in Final Jeopardy. I created “Betting Strategy 101” because I didn’t want to see people do this anymore, please use it!

I got the distinct sense that Jonathan was pointing out Chrissy’s underwager during the closing credits chat.

The HOW TO PLAY QUIDDITCH category was all about Muggle Quidditch. I suspect that the $1,000 clue in particular is going to receive a great deal of viewer feedback, because there is a significant difference in rules between Muggle Quidditch and the quidditch as played in the Harry Potter books themselves. In the books, the golden snitch is worth 150. However, according to the rulebook of US Quidditch, “Each team also has a seeker who tries to catch the snitch. The snitch is a ball attached to the waistband of the snitch runner, a neutral athlete in a yellow uniform who uses any means to avoid capture. The snitch is worth 30 points and its capture ends the game.”

I wish that players would strive to bet more on Daily Doubles, especially at the $800 and $1200 boxes in Double Jeopardy. So far this season in Double Jeopardy!, players are 88% in the second row and 74% in the third row on Daily Doubles. The odds are in your favor. Take advantage! (And, for what it’s worth, had Cade bet more on his second Daily Double, he would have had a faint hope of winning this game going into Final Jeopardy. As it turns out, he did not have a chance.)

The clue is worded poorly. The event that caused GV to become the “Candy Bomber”
was the “Berlin Blockade”. The reaction / relief was codenamed “Berlin Airlift” or in German “Berliner Luftbruecke” (verbatim Berlin Airbridge”. Will J accept both answers???

Well, Doris, while Wikipedia’s article does title the event “Berlin Blockade”, I, for one, learned of the event in my history classes as “the Berlin airlift”.

I presume that had a contestant written “What is the Berlin blockade”, I would venture that the show’s judges would have allowed it.

I would also posit that a clue isn’t poorly worded just because it doesn’t pin to a specific singular wording, as long as the show is prepared to accept synonymic terms given by players (Note that Cade said “air drop” and it was also accepted.)

Turns out J! accepted even “Airdrop”. Another belated Christmas gift.
It was never officially called “airdrop”. Fortunately it did not matter in the end and congratulations to Jonathan for his third win! Unfortunately it does not say how his answer was exactly worded, so I assume that the answer corresponded with the above mentioned “What is the Berlin airlift”.
Again, not all clues were played. Had Jonathan gotten the clue that was left on the board first and correctly it would have made the game a runaway.
Again it did fortunately not change the outcome in the end. But more often than not clues are left on the board and when they COULD make a difference in the outcome it is unfair to the players imo. If it’s a close game and enough money is left then this must be frustrating for both: the player who could have made the game a runaway game and to the player who could have prevented it if given the chance.

A bit of a surprise that “airdrop” was accepted, since the only airdrop that took place was Halvorsen’s — nothing else was dropped; all other supplies were simply unloaded from the airplanes after landing.

As someone who spent a good portion of his career in MAC (Military Airlift Command), I was hoping that someone would respond with “Operation Vittles” but no such luck.

It always bothers me that Alex will say something about the contestants not being old enough to recall certain things, given the number of questions that require a knowledge of history in many different categories. Grrrrrrr,,,

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